Trustee Jeff Kellogg among leaders in Long Beach Community College District races

LONG BEACH >> Two newcomers and one incumbent were out in front Wednesday morning in unofficial results to fill seats on the Long Beach Community College District Board of Trustees.

Trustee Jeff Kellogg of Area 1 was ahead of Marshall Blesofsky, with 55.6 percent versus 44.4 percent of the vote for the challenger, with all 48 precincts reporting just before 2 a.m.

Sunny Zia led Stella Ursua in the 3rd Area, taking 59.8 percent of the vote, compared to Ursua’s 40.2 percent, with all 46 precincts reporting.

In the 5th Area, Virginia Baxter jumped ahead of Gregory Slaughter, with 55.7 percent of the vote, versus 44.3 percent for her opponent, with all 80 precincts reporting.

The Board of Trustees, which oversees a $105-million budget, has endured sharp criticism over the past 18 months for cutting 11 vocational programs and approving a two-tier tuition system for winter and summer sessions. The board was guaranteed new representatives when Mark Bowen bowed out of the Area 3 race and Thomas Clark announced last year that he wouldn’t seek re-election for Area 5.

Kellogg, the current board president who voted in favor of the two-tier system and vocational cuts, aims to enter his fourth term in office for the college district.

He ran on his experience and maintaining the direction of the LBCCD, as Blesofsky, a retired university professor endorsed by the Long Beach City College Political Action Coalition of faculty and staff, sought to restore the vocational programs.

Zia, who was endorsed by the LBCC PAC for the 3rd Area seat, opposed the two-tier tuition and the cuts to vocational programs, while Ursua, executive director of Green Education Inc., said she wanted to look at the success of the two-tier tuition sessions and each vocational program. Zia ran on her experience managing public funds and budgets.

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In the 5th Area, Baxter pitched to voters her 44-year academic career, including more than 30 years teaching history on the LBCC campus, as well as her work as executive director of the Long Beach City College Foundation. In the wake of AB 955, which authorized two-tier classes, Baxter helped raise scholarship money for students who wanted to pay extra tuition during intersession.

Slaughter, a retired LBCC professor and former lieutenant for the Santa Monica Police Department who was endorsed by the LBCC PAC, was a vocal opponent of the two-tier system and the vocational program cuts.